Chapter Two
WHEN THEY REACHED the open double doors, Jayden stood aside and allowed his guest to enter first. Again, it seemed difficult for the other man to hide his amazement.
This was one of Jayden’s favorite rooms in the house and was the reason he chose it to be his office. Behind his massive antique desk was a wall of floor to ceiling windows that looked out over a very carefully cultivated and manicured garden. The various flowers and greenery were lush and in full bloom even during this time of the year. The wall at the far end of the room contained a large stone fireplace.
Facing it was a loveseat, which was flanked by a matching easy chair on either side. A coffee table sat in the middle. The other walls were made up of floor to ceiling bookcases that were filled with books. Sliding ladders were attached to all of the bookcases so the top shelves could be reached with ease.
Jayden indicated the two leather high-backed chairs that sat facing his desk and invited Jefferson Graves to have a seat. Then he sat down himself.
“Now, Mr. Graves, what can I do for you?” Jayden asked.
“This is rather complicated, but I’ll try to simplify it a bit in the interest of time. You may be familiar with Graves Enterprises. My two brothers and I have running the company along with our father, who died recently as a result of a terrible accident. Fortunately, he had left a will so we all know what his wishes were. There’s quite a bit of money involved in his estate as well as the business itself. Most of the money as well as an interest in the business have been left to my brothers and me. The remainder of the estate has been left to a younger sister that we had no idea even existed. The problem is that since we never knew of her, obviously we don’t have a recent address for her. We did try to do a little searching on our own but, so far, we haven’t had any success in locating her. That’s when my brothers and I decided we should involve a professional. And here I am.”
“I see,” Jayden said, nodding. “So you want to hire me to find this sister of yours. If I’m going to find her, I’ll need a bit of information in order to get started on a basic search and then go from there if needed. Whatever details you’ve managed to unearth will be helpful in getting started. Here’s a list of my fees and what they cover.”
Sliding a sheet of paper across the table, he watched Graves merely glance at it and nod.
“Your fees aren’t a problem, Mr. St. Paul. Our only interest is in finding our long lost sister. If you agree to help locate her, I’m prepared to write you a check today.”
“Very well, Mr. Graves,” Jayden said. “I’ll get started on this immediately and keep you updated as I find out anything.”
Fifteen minutes later, Jayden was seeing Jefferson Graves to the door. He went back to his office, check in hand, and watched his security cameras so that he would know when to open the gates for Graves to depart. Once that was done, he sat back and reflected on what little bit of information Graves had been able to supply about his long lost, unknown sister.
Her name was Cybele Shannon and she was approximately 26 years old. Graves hadn’t known her exact birthdate. He and his brothers had managed to unearth the fact that she had been born in Moon Bay in one of the main hospitals there. That was as good a place as any for him to start.
He turned to face his computer and used his special search software to try to locate Cybele’s birth certificate. It took a few minutes to find what he was looking for, but eventually, he had the one he needed. The fact that she had a rather odd name helped as well as knowing what hospital she was born in. He did have to run the entire year because Graves didn’t have a birth month for her, but he finally hit pay dirt.
The birth certificate for Cybele Shannon showed her birth date as June 25th and her mother’s name was Renee Shannon. Renee had been 22 when Cybele was born. Father was Unknown.
Well, that’s not a huge surprise, being as her father was a very well-known businessman in town, and a married one at that. A little more research turned up that Renee Shannon was deceased and had been since Cybele was little more than 18 years old.
At least she wasn’t dumped into the system, thought Jayden. He had to assume that Cybele never knew the elder Mr. Graves or that he was her father. After her mother’s death, it seemed that Cybele had simply gone off the grid. Jayden didn’t doubt that he would be able to find her, though.
After all, finding missing people was what he did best. It was his special calling and he never failed to find the missing person he’s meant to locate. He was ready to find Ms. Cybele Shannon no matter how much work it would take to do so.
THE NEXT MORNING, Jayden got up, made coffee and planned out his day.
He had given his housekeeper Stella the week off so that she and her husband could go on a proper vacation, which he also paid for.
Jayden was generous if he wasn’t anything else. Besides, Stella and Jerry were the closest things he had to a family her on Earth. He was glad that she seemed to be having a good time, but he couldn’t deny that he was going to be relieved to see her return. It was hard to understand how she managed to keep his house running so smoothly. That was a feat that he certainly couldn’t do.
On the other hand, making coffee was easy enough and he could have breakfast once he got to Moon Bay.
Jayden checked his appearance in the mirror before leaving the house and studied what he saw there. His height was sometimes a deterrent when he was shadowing someone because he was 6’ 5” and had a rather fit body for his height, but it was all solid muscle. His hair wasn’t grey but it was a very unique silver color that he wore in a full style. His eyes were also a silver grey in color and he always looked as if he was wearing black eyeliner. His lashes were also long and dark, making him the envy of any woman that saw them. With his lush mouth, women tended to try to get him to kiss them all the time. They kept telling him that his mouth was “kissable.” Today, however, he was dressed casually in a navy blue pullover shirt and a pair of faded jeans. This outfit would help him blend in somewhat at least where he was headed.
Another thing he was doing for this outing was driving one of his older, less conspicuous vehicles. This one could be parked anywhere and no one would pay much attention to it. As a last thought, he added a baseball cap and sunglasses to his ensemble.
Now, he might still be noticeable a bit, but he would most likely be seen just as another of Moon Bay’s unique population.
The drive only took a few minutes and, happily, it wasn’t as hard to find a parking place as he would have thought. Easing into an empty spot that was on the street, Jayden adjusted his hat and sunglasses.
Then he went in search of Cybele Shannon.
He played it cool as he talked to various shop owners, retail workers, food service workers and even some street people. Of course, he didn’t really have a lot to offer them in the way of a description.
He was about to give up for the day when he decided that he would make one last stop in a convenience store that seemed to be pretty busy and popular. And, well, he had a “feeling” about it.
The scene he walked in on was nothing like he expected, though.